Contemporary Engineering Sciences, Vol. 5, 2012, no.

8, 365 - 374

A Flexible OFDM System Simulation Model with BER Performance Test

Aladdin Amro Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Jordan Department of Communications Engineering amroru@ hotmail.com Visiting professor in Taibah University, Saudi Arabia

Fadi Abu-Amara Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Jordan Department of Computer Engineering fadiabuamara@yahoo.com

Ahmed Musa Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Jordan Department of Computer Engineering as_shorman@yahoo.com

Abstract This work aims at developing flexible simulation model for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). In this model, the system parameters such as modulation scheme symbol order, or the number of subcarriers can be changed easily according to specific OFDM system implementation. This system can serve as a key tool for researchers in the area of OFDM systems. In this work, the proposed model is used to conduct different experiments to examine the performance of OFDM system. For instance, the Bit Error Rates (BER) of OFDM system under different noise conditions have been computed. In

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Aladdin Amro, Fadi Abu-Amara and Ahmed Musa

addition, a comparison between BERs resulting from different constellation schemes have been performed. Simulation results indicate that the proposed model is working efficiently. Keywords: AWGN, Bit Error rate, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, Signal to Noise Ratio

I. Introduction
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) has been successfully applied to a wide variety of digital communication applications over the past several years[5][4]. While OFDM principle was adopted as a physical layer for many important communication systems such as asymmetric digital subscriber loop(ADSL), Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB),Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), high-definition television (HDTV), wireless local area network (WLAN)and the fourth generation of mobile cellular[5][4],the theory, algorithms, and implementation techniques of OFDM are topics of high interest[3][4]. Despite that OFDM systems have lot of advantages in providing high data rates with sufficient robust against radio channel impairments. OFDM systems have suffered from several drawbacks such as high dynamic range of the transmitted signal. Thus intensive works have to be performed to improve the OFDM systems performance. This paper is intended to develop an efficient and flexible simulation model for OFDM systems using Matlab. The rest of this paper is organized as follows: section II presents the mathematical model of OFDM system. Section III describes the proposed Simulation model. Section IV presents the proposed model test by performing bit error rate ( BER)performance analysis for different system configurations as an example of the proposed model usage while section V concludes the paper.

II. Mathematical Model of OFDM System

It is worth mentioning that OFDM is a special class of Multicarrier modulation (MCM).Figure 1 (a) shows a general implementation of MCM system[6]. The structure of a complex multiplier (IQ modulator/demodulator) which is commonly used in MCM systems, is also shown in Figure1 (b). The MCM transmitted signal S(t) can be represented by Equations 1-3 [6].

Flexible OFDM system simulation model

367

S (t ) =

i = k =1

+ N SC

ki

S k (t iTs )

(1)

S k (t ) = (t )e j 2f k t

(2)

1, 0 < t Ts (t ) = 0, t 0, t > Ts

(3)

Where Cki is the ith information symbol at the kth subcarrier, Skis the waveform for the kth subcarrier, Nsc is the number of subcarriers, fk is the frequency of the subcarrier, Ts is the symbol period, and (t) is the pulse shaping function.

Figure 1

The optimum detector for each subcarrier uses a filter that matches the subcarrier waveform. In other words, this filter is worked as a correlator that matches the
' subcarrier, see Figure 1. Therefore, the detected information symbol C ki at the output of the correlator is given by

' C ki =

1 TS

Ts

* r (t iTS )S k dt = 0

1 TS

Ts

r (t iT
0

)e j 2f k t dt

(4)

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Aladdin Amro, Fadi Abu-Amara and Ahmed Musa

Where r(t) is the received time domain signal. Because classical MCM uses nonoverlapped band limited signals it requires excessive bandwidth [6]. The main advantages of OFDM system is its ability to employee the overlapped yet orthogonal signal sets. This orthogonality originates from a straightforward correlation between any two subcarriers, given by

kl =

1 Ts

Ts

s k sl dt =
0

1 exp( j 2 ( f k f l )t )dt = (5) Ts sin( ( f k f l )Ts ) ( f k f l )Ts

= exp( j ( f k f l )Ts )

For the two subcarriers to be orthogonalthe following condition should be satisfied

fk fl = m 1 Ts

OFDM modulation/demodulation can be implemented by using inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT)/discrete Fourier transform (DFT).This is evident by analyzing equations (1)and(4)[5].The OFDM technology divides a wideband frequency selective channel in to Narrow band flat fading channel. Thus it has a strong resistance to multipath fading and anti-carrier interference [3].

III. Simulation Model Description

An OFDM model is built using MATLAB. In this model, the number of bits in the stream, the number of subcarriers, and the modulation scheme are user input parameters.

Figure 2 displays the block diagram of the proposed OFDM model.

Flexible OFDM system simulation model

DataIn Symbol Mapping Serialto parallel

369

IDFT

Channel
Noise Data Out Symbol Demapping parallelto Serial

DFT

Figure2:OFDMmodelblockdiagram

The proposed OFDM model can be summarized as follows. Bit stream with the given length is generated using the random function randint(nbit,1,2). In this function, nbit denotes the length of the bit stream that should be divisible by number of subcarriers. Consequently these generated bits are modulated using Matlab "modem.qammod" object. This built in object allows the user to set the desired M-ary value as well as the symbol order which can be binary, gray, or user defined. afterwards, the bit stream is converted to a parallel stream where the number of streams is corresponds to the desired number of subcarriers. Now, the inverse Fourier transform can be computed. To demonstrate and simulate the channel conditions and effects, a white Gaussian noise of different powers is added to the OFDM signal At the receiver end, reverse operations are performed which include Fourier transform computation, parallel-to-serial conversion,, and demodulation, respectively. Thus the proposed model allows the user to simulate the OFDM signal formulation, transition, and receiving. Here, as was previously mentioned, the user can select the desired modulation scheme, symbol order, bit stream size, and number of subcarriers.

IV.OFDM Model Testing

Here, the simulated OFDM model is scrutinized using different SNR values. As a result, a figure that shows the behavior of BER versus the (Eb/No)change is obtained. The acquired results are compared with those standard results obtained

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Aladdin Amro, Fadi Abu-Amara and Ahmed Musa

from the Matlab BERTool [7]. Fortunately, a close match between the simulator results and the standard ones has achieved. As was previously mentioned, this study aims at studying the OFDM system performance(i.e., measuring BER) according to the change of the following system parameters. 1. BER performance for different constellation sizes The model was run for 4, 16, and 32 QAM constellations. Figure 3 displays BER vs. Eb/No for these constellations. Figure 3 shows that the BER performance of the system is inversely dependent on constellation size. This means that when the constellation size increase the BER increase accordingly For instance, to achieve BER =10-4 for 4 QAM constellation we need 7 dB SNR. However, a 12 dB SNR is required to achieve the same BER for 16 QAM.

10

10

-1

16QAM 4 QAM 32 QAM

10

-2

BER

10

-3

10

-4

10

-5

10

-6

-10

-5

5 Eb/N0

10

15

20

Figure3:BERvs.SNRfordifferentconstellationsizes

Similar results are achieved in for 2 (i.e., BSK),4, and 16 constellations as shown in Figure 4.

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371

10

10

-1

16 QAM 4 QAM BSK

10

-2

BER

10

-3

10

-4

10

-5

10

-6

-10

-5

0 Eb/N0

10

15

Figure4:BERvs.SNRfordifferentconstellationsizes

2. BER Performance for Different Number of Subcarriers To scrutinize the effect of number of subcarriers on BER performance, the model has been run for different number of subcarriers. Figure 5 shows the BER vs. Eb/NO for 512, 256, and 1028 subcarriers are. From the BER curves (Fig. 5), it can be observed that the BER performance is almost independent of the number of subcarriers except at very high SNR.

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Aladdin Amro, Fadi Abu-Amara and Ahmed Musa

10

-1

10

-2

512 car 256 car 1028 car

10 BER 10

-3

-4

10

-5

10

-6

6 Eb/NO

10

12

Figure5:BERvs.SNRfordifferentnumbersofsubcarriers 3.BERperformancefordifferentSymbolmapping

The proposed model gives the user the opportunity to choose symbol order (binary, gray ,etc). Figure 6 shows the BER curves for two symbol mapping; gray and binary.

Flexible OFDM system simulation model

10
0

373

10

-1

Binary Gray

10

-2

BER

10

-3

10

-4

10

-5

10

-6

-4

-2

4 Eb/N0(dB)

10

12

Figure6:BERvs.SNRforBinaryandGraymapping

V. CONCLUSION

In this paper, a flexible OFDM simulation model has been developed. In this model the system parameters can be easily changed according to specific system requirements. The BER vs. SNR carves for OFDM system are obtained for different system parameters. The analysis of the obtained results shows that the developed model can efficiently simulate and demonstrate the effect of changing of OFDM system parameters. Thus, the developed model can be used as a research tool (or educational tool) to perform deepen study and investigation to improve OFDM systems performance.

References
[1] A. R. Bahai and B. R. Saltzberg "Multi-Carrier Digital Communications: Theory and Applications of OFDM" Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004.

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[2] LIAN HuaZhAOruimei HU boning PANG Huawei," Simulation and Analysis of OFDM Communication System", 2010 2nd International Conference on Industrial Mechatronics and Automation. [3] Lun Zhang, Qing Zhao, Simulation and Analysis of MIMO-OFDM System Based On Simulink, IEEE International Conference. [4] Taewon Hwang; Chenyang Yang; Gang Wu; Shaoqian Li; Ye Li, G.;"OFDM and Its Wireless Applications: A SurveyVehicular Technology, IEEE Transactios 2009. [5] Theodore S. Rappaport, A. Annamali, R. M.Buehrer, and W.H. Tranter "Wirless Communication: Past events and a future perspective",IEEE Communications Magazine 50th Anniversary Commemorative Issue/May 2002. [6] William Shieh and Ivan Djordjevic" OFDM for Optical Communications ", Elsevier, 2010. [7] www.mathworks.com/help/toolbox/comm/ug/bsvzixi.html#bsvziy0.

Received: May, 2012